Stay Strong For Me
by Senorita TacoMal
Summary: WARNING May contain minor spoilers if you haven't seen episode 14 of Naruto: Shippuden or read chapter 238 or 239 of the manga Gaisensei was too late in rescuing Tenten. Her teammates couldn't do anything to stop her from drowning. I suck at summaries.


(Ahem) this is a short little drabble I made about what would've happened if Tenten had drowned during Team Gai's battle with Kisame. Enjoy :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tenten exhaled most of the rest of the oxygen in her lungs. Correction. There was hardly any oxygen in her body. It was mostly carbon dioxide, and she knew she couldn't hold out much longer if things kept going the way they were.

Tenten heard the faint voices of Lee and Neji yell her name. She wished they wouldn't worry about her. By the time they could rescue her, it'd already be pretty much too late.

Tenten exhaled the last bit of air in her lungs. She then inhaled a lungful of water. Her body apparently did not like this. Her head started pounding, her heart lurched, and her lugs flipped out. Every part of her body started reacting to the foreign substance she had forced to bypass her larynx. She coughed violently, having nothing else to take in but more water. Her vision went blurry and she felt as if her head were explanding.

In the next two water bubbles over, Neji and Lee watched in horror as they watched their teammate dying. And they couldn't do anything about it. If they even tried anything, the clones of Kisame would most likely send some sort of electric charge through the water, killing all three of them

Tenten coughed up blood as some part of her lung burst, tinting the surrounding water a red color. Gai saw this through the water. "TENTEN!!!!!!!! Damnit, it's too late to do anything. Her lungs have burst. And Lee's reaching his limit too. I have to do something..." Gai proceeded to open 6 of his chakra gates and beat the shit outta Kisame

Tenten thought she heard her sensei shout her name as her body started to shut down. She felt herself go limp. The last things to go were her hearing and nervous system. She smiled up at the sky as she closed her eyes for the last time.

She heard the water bubble around her being released. She broke the water's surface and kept floating downwards. It really wasn't as bad as she had imagined, death. She actually felt quite peaceful. She wasn't feeling any pain, only the water rushing in around her as she began to sink through the water. She did have a slight moment of remorse when she realized she wouldn't be seeing her friends, especially her teammates for a long while. And then there was the fact that she hadn't even gotten to see Naruto yet. She also wished that she had finished that last piece of strawberry shortcake she had left in the fridge.

She felt Neji pull her back up through the water. "Tenten-kun!!!! Say something!"

_"I'm trying, Neji, I'm trying so hard…"_

"Tenten-kun!!!" This was Lee's voice. "You can't leave us!!!"

_"I don't want to go, Lee. But I have to… I see two angels coming for me…"_

"TENTEN!!!!!!!" She felt Neji pull her into a hug. She felt his tears on her face.

_"Neji, Lee, please don't cry, it breaks my heart to know you're crying… please be strong for me…"_

"Neji, she's gone…" Lee's entire body shook from crying so hard. He had never cried this hard, out of grief, joy, or happiness combined. Not even when Gai-sensei had told Lee that he'd commit suicide if Lee didn't make it through his surgery. Never.

_"Two angels, Neji, Lee, I wish you could see them… They're beautiful… wait, Mom? D-dad? Mom!!! Dad!!! I missed you so much!!!!!"_

Neji was crying too hard to say anything. He was trying to get control over his emotions. "Lee… we have to be strong… for Tenten. She wouldn't have wanted us to cry over her. She'd want us to be strong for her…" Neji viciously wiped tears from his face. He laid Tenten's body on a rock out of the way of the battle.

_Tenten's parents each reached a hand to her. She took each's hand, and on her appeared a white dress and radiant wing that sparkled with an almost unbelievable luminescence. Her parents beckoned for her to come with them. She let go of their hands and asked them to wait a second. They patiently waited._

_Tenten delivered a kiss on the cheek to both Neji and Lee. "I'll miss you two, but remember, I'll always be watching over you._

Neji and Lee both felt a tickling sensation on their cheeks, as if they had just been kissed by a ghost or an angel. They lightly touched it, and looked over in Tenten's direction. Even though they couldn't see her, they somehow knew that she'd always be with them.

_And with that, tshe took her parents' hands once more as they guided her upwards towards the Kingdom of Heaven._


End file.
